Difficulty: Easy
Correct Answer: Actuate
Explanation:
Introduction / Context:
This is an alphabetical order or dictionary order question. You are given a small list of words and asked to decide which one appears last if all words are arranged as in an English dictionary. These questions test basic knowledge of alphabetical rules and are very common in aptitude exams and clerical recruitment tests.
Given Data / Assumptions:
• The given words are: Abandon, Actuate, Accumulate, Acquit and Achieve.
• We assume standard English dictionary rules where words are compared letter by letter from left to right.
• If all words share some initial letters, comparison continues from the first position where they differ.
Concept / Approach:
Dictionary order is determined by comparing letters at the same position in each word. The first place where two words differ decides which one comes first or last in alphabetical sequence. The process is similar to how you would search for a word in a dictionary: you first look at the initial letter, then the second, and so on.
Step-by-Step Solution:
Step 1: Write the words clearly: Abandon, Actuate, Accumulate, Acquit, Achieve.Step 2: Compare first letters. All words begin with the letter A, so we move to the second letters.Step 3: The second letters are: Abandon (b), Actuate (c), Accumulate (c), Acquit (c), Achieve (c). Since b comes before c, Abandon will definitely come before all the other four words.Step 4: Now consider only words starting with "Ac": Actuate, Accumulate, Acquit, Achieve. We now compare their third letters.Step 5: Write third letters: Actuate (t), Accumulate (c), Acquit (q), Achieve (h). Alphabetically, c comes before h, h comes before q, and q comes before t.Step 6: Therefore, among the "Ac" words, the correct alphabetical order is: Accumulate, Achieve, Acquit, Actuate.Step 7: Putting Abandon in the full list, we get final order: Abandon, Accumulate, Achieve, Acquit, Actuate. Thus, the word that comes last is Actuate.
Verification / Alternative check:
You can confirm by writing each word vertically and comparing column wise. Once you note that all start with A, you focus on the second and third letters. A useful shorthand is to mentally treat only the first three or four letters: Aba, Act, Acc, Acq and Ach. Sorting these small fragments gives the overall order very quickly, and it agrees with the detailed comparison above.
Why Other Options Are Wrong:
• Accumulate: This comes before Achieve because c is alphabetically earlier than h in the third letter position.• Acquit: This comes before Actuate, because q is earlier than t in alphabetical order.• Achieve: This comes earlier than Acquit and Actuate because h comes before q and t at the third letter position.• Abandon: This is the earliest of all because its second letter is b, which comes before c used in the other words.
Common Pitfalls:
Some candidates look only at the first two letters and mistakenly assume that all "Ac..." words are in random order. Others may incorrectly think that the length of the word affects dictionary order, but length only matters when one word is a complete starting segment of another. Here that situation does not occur, so we rely entirely on letter by letter comparison.
Final Answer:
When the words are arranged in correct dictionary order, the word that comes last is Actuate.
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